Appeals court halts execution of Tennessee woman less than two hours before lethal injection
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A US appeals court ordered a "short stay of execution" for death row inmate Christa Pike, less than two hours before she was scheduled to be the first woman put to death in the state in more than two centuries. The court halted the execution to give it time to consider Pike's claims that her history of severe sexual abuse had not been taken into consideration during sentencing.
A picture taken on December 4, 2007 shows death row inmate Christa Pike entering a Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, US, obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2026. © J. Miles Cary, USA Today Network via Reuters
Tennessee's execution of Christa Pike for a murder she committed at 18 years old was halted Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.
The Tennessee attorney general's office immediately asked the US Supreme Court to vacate the stay order.
This would have been the state’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville, in 1995.
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